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Well he is a master swordsman, if you can be a master swordsman, and that's much more satisfying. It doesn't make sense to me why you'd want to play a game as Superman, you might as well just watch a cutscene of Geralt being a badass and end it there. No challenge just leads to boredom in my opinion.

This is exactly it - his ability is shown by the amount of things he can do in a fight which most of the other human enemies can't. Think of how restrictive it feels when the game gets you to play briefly as another character, that demonstrates the difference between Witchers and normal folk.

Also, a lot of the human enemies he fights are soldiers. Now, games have a tendancy to depict the basic soldier as an low-level threat, which is silly as there's a good chance that soldier could be some veteran of 100 battles and so be pretty damn good himself. Even a fresh recruit would have picked up a thing or two in a land as dangerous as the game makes out. So I loved that in TW2 you could get a beatdown from 4 guys if you weren't careful - that ballista fight right at the start was a baptism by fire the first time I played it. Makes a change from pretty much every other big RPG around right now.

Just started Mass Effect 3 and already I have 3 questions:
1. Who is this muscle-bound Gears of War reject and why should I care?
2. Why is Ashley whoring it up and gone all Michael Jackson with her skin tone?
3. Since when would my Shepard have allowed himself to be grounded by the Alliance - that body of people he did not fucking work for in ME2 (he did favours for and that was it)?

It's shit like this Bioware. Massively revisionist shit like this. It was bad enough at the end of ME2 when the supposedly godlike, unstoppable Reaper horde is shown to be fucking hours away from Earth, meaning some massive Reaper re-write or deus ex machina will have to be pulled outta someones ass for the sequel. But now you just seem to be changing everything you've established.
I know it's going to be a good, well-designed game. But it is going to try my patience like nothing else.

1. Who is this muscle-bound Gears of War reject and why should I care?

He's got quite a few funny lines, but, permission to not care granted.

Originally Posted by Casimir Effect

2. Why is Ashley whoring it up and gone all Michael Jackson with her skin tone?

Heh, the whoring tones down after those early cut scenes.

Originally Posted by Casimir Effect

3. Since when would my Shepard have allowed himself to be grounded by the Alliance - that body of people he did not fucking work for in ME2 (he did favours for and that was it)?

The WTF's in a narritive sense have only just begun in ME3, I can almost see you in a week or so raging about various things.
But, to be fair, the BS started in ME2, why did Shep buddy with with Cerburus, why did the Human Navy not defend/evacuate its colonies, WTF a giant robot skeleton, WTF why am I not allowed to be jubilant about committing genocide on Batarians? -ME1 racist renegade shep would have been fist pumping.

Regarding point 3, Shep is grounded because he needs to be because the Batarians are pissed and the Alliance and the Hegemony need someone to blame.

And they're not shown hours away, they're in dark space still.

Plus, Althea, I'm not sure how you can say it doesn't make sense, he IS superhuman as is shown by his ability to not be dead when he was to fight multiple enemies. Just because it's a struggle, it's far more than what anyone else could do.

1. Token cultural Spanish team member. He is easily out-classed in combat potential as soon as you get your third team member. You need never use him after that, to no detriment, apart from maybe one or two missions where I think he may be necessary.
2. She's a Spectre, so she can wear what she likes. You can, however, use her alternate appearance to something that isn't stupid and gives her defence rather than offensive punch. Also, you can't sell a game without a purdy lady. Apparently.
3. Woefully unexplained in-game, but it's due to the events of the Arrival DLC for 2. You willingly take the fall, although the military sure picked an amazing time to question you on your knowledge of the Reapers...

Plus, Althea, I'm not sure how you can say it doesn't make sense, he IS superhuman as is shown by his ability to not be dead when he was to fight multiple enemies. Just because it's a struggle, it's far more than what anyone else could do.

As I was saying, the difficulty doesn't make sense in context. Whether you're judging it by the combat difficulty between TW1 and TW2 or general thinking - i.e. Geralt's attacking style is much more fluid in TW1 than TW2 - then something just doesn't add up.

1. Who is this muscle-bound Gears of War reject and why should I care?

He's basically there for all the people who haven't played either of the previous games; a sort of new guy in the whole situation who doesn't have any ties to the past stuff, much like the hypothetical ME virgin. I've read that his dialogue changes when played with a brand new, non-imported character, with more exposition and explanation of the world and history of the series.

Finished Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Last third of the game was a drag as usual, but with a maxed-out Ranged skill and the Steyr Aug it was at least a very easy drag. And the independent ending is amazing enough to make me forget a lot of flaws.

Not sure what to play next. I still have the Witcher lying around unfinished, but I'm also tempted to do another playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas. Oh, the agony of choice.

His existance as a character I'm okay with and it's always great to have more ethnic representation in games, but the design is terrible. I mean, who actually looks like this beyond those guys at the gym who spend hours there every day, grunting and talking about 'juicing'. Soldiers are in good shape, but they shouldn't have the spare time or diet to be able to go full 'roid like this. Unless he channels Brucie while on duty and starts doing pullups on every door frame.
The worst part is I can tell he's going to be hitting on my Femshep when I do that playthrough. The very thought makes me throw up a little.

As for the Batarians, I played Arrival so understand what the game is giving as a reason. But that reason isn't good enough and could have been better working off the same plot. Ultra goody-goody Shepards may volunteer to be grounded to appease the Batarians, but how is that ever going to come close to settling it? Removing one man from duty vs killing hundreds of thousands, fair deal there guys! Far better to have the Alliance turn around and say they haven't worked with you for 2+ years now - you're a Spectre and possible Cerberus ally so they take no responsibility. Then ME3 opens with you cruising around in the Normandy, dodging Batarian bounty hunters but otherwise protected from war crimes trials or official repercussions due to Spectre status.

Finished Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Last third of the game was a drag as usual, but with a maxed-out Ranged skill and the Steyr Aug it was at least a very easy drag. And the independent ending is amazing enough to make me forget a lot of flaws.

My wife to be (not long now) is playing Bloodlines, oh my god are some of the quests contrived. I'd forgotten how often you'd go back and forth. Ugh... She just reached downtown, I wonder how she will react to her ghoul.